Pratt, Bela Lyon Publique Deposited
Born in Norwich, Connecticut. Married Helen Lugada Pray August 11, 1897. Received BFA from Yale University in 1899; MFA from Harvard in 1915. Studied under Augustus Saint Gaudens at Art Students League of New York and at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. Taught modeling at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts. He died in Boston.
He designed the Indian Head gold quarter eagles and half eagles issued 1908-1929. The incuse designs were supported by William Sturgis Bigelow and were known as the Bigelow-Pratt designs. The designs were severly criticized by numismatist Samuel Hudson Chapman. One complaint was that the incuse design would trap dirt and make the coins unsanitary.
bio: ApCAB; DAB; Fielding; NCAB 14; WWWA-1
- 1867-12-11
- Norwich, Connecticut
- 1917-05-18